Want to mingle with fellow researchers and get the scoop on local sources? Discover the benefits of belonging to a genealogical society — and how to find the right one for you.

I'd always known my great-great-grandparents traveled to Missouri after the Civil War, but not where they settled or were buried. After much frustrating research, I'd concluded this particular Hendrickson puzzle would forever be a dead end. Then a small, unassuming genealogical society helped a dream of mine come true.

It started one day when I was reading microfilm at my Family History Center (a branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Family History Library <www.familysearch.org> in Salt Lake City). A note in the margins spelled it out in black and white: John and Lydia Ann Hendrickson were buried in Reed Cemetery, Cass County, Mo. Wow!